#Delhi’s Chandni Chowk Market Online Now-Thanks to #Google and #Hostgator

Delhi’s famous market Chandni Chowk gets  websites for individual businesses.

New Delhi: About 2500 businesses in India’s well known market, Chandni Chowk, Delhi have their own websites now. It is one of the oldest markets in India built by Mughal rulers centuries ago. The websites were built by Hostgator,the leading Indian web hosting company in association with Google as part of a program called “India Get Your Business Online” launched in November 2011.The program offers free websites and domains to small business owners in India.

Most of the small businesses in India do not have a website and hence Google’s new initiative is to bring them online to increase their business. Google India Vice President Rajan Anandan said that in India there were 137 million internet users and great majority of them look online for various information. Only few small businesses have a decent looking website, he added.

Under the present scheme, Google provides a domain name, a website and free hosting for one year. The free hosting is given by Hostgator, its hosting partner. The websites will be integrated with Google Maps by which the businesses will be listed under various categories. After one year, an amount of 700 Indian rupees as hosting fees will be charged by Google to continue the service.

A common directory of businesses in Chandni Chouk, http://www.chandnichowknowonline.in has also been launched in addition to individual websites. The directory offers a main search bar for browsing shops and businesses in the home page. It also gives business owner’s name, address, contact number and link to the business website.

According to Pradeep Jain, Kinari Bazaar Gota Zari Association of Chandni Chowk, the initiative by Google would make it easier for customers to find them online. He added that the place was a hub of product suppliers, exporters, wholesalers and many other medium sized shops in north India. Most of them have been operating there for over hundred years. The communication and IT minister of India, Kapil Sibal also said that the move would help those business owners increase their business.

7-Year Old Noida Girl Wins Google’s Doodle Contest

Varsha Gupta, a third standard student of Ryan International School in Greater Noida, stole the show as she won the popular Doodle4Google India contest. Around 1,55,000 contestants were raced past by Varsha’s Google logo which illustrated Indian classical music instruments, drawn in a style to portray each letter of “Google“.

 

“India is a land of different cultures. In India, music plays a very important role. India has given many musical instruments to the world…” Varsha wrote describing her Doodle.

JJ School of Art in Mumbai screened all the drawings and later put them up for online voting. Professional artists who draw doodles for Google were entitled to judge the logos drawn by children.
“I helped judge the drawings with a few of my colleagues and frankly, we were all a little scared. These kids are so good, we might all lose our jobs sometime soon.” said Jennifer Hom, Google Doodler. Out of the 1,55,000 entries, as many as 6,000 doodles were shortlisted for the quarter-finals, and 600 for the semis. A panel of judges then picked the 45 finalists.

Varsha’s victory moved her father to tears and he said, “This is the best day of my life. I am so happy.” The logo drawn by Varsha will be used by Google on 14th November and her work will be showcased in front of hundred million online users. On winning an expensive laptop as a prize, Varsha says “When my father is in office, I will give the laptop to my mother. When he comes back, I will give it to him.” Rajan Anandan, Managing Director and VP for Google India, handed Varsha with the winning certificate at an event in Delhi and along with a laptop, a year’s Internet connection and 2 Lakh technology grant for her school.

Anandan said, “I am delighted to see the enthusiasm that the youngsters have put in to showcase their creativity. We hope this gets bigger each year.”
Mangalore‘s Shubham Vernekar was also a national finalist in the contest. Shubham has also won Daijiworld Weekly Drawing Contest. Apart from him two other Mangaloreans, Vaibhav Shenoy and Varun Holla were also in the race.

Although Mangalore boys are extremely artistic, it was the voting system that prevented them from winning the contest. They missed the opportunity due to lack of better online publicity and as they secured fewer votes, they lost their chance in the contest..